Eyes On Costume Designer Erica D Schwartz

How does a costume designer build a viral red carpet look in one week? Emmy winning costume designer Erica Schwartz did exactly that for Hacks stars Megan Stalter and Paul W. Downs, and she takes us all the way inside the job. This one is a craft master class disguised as a great conversation. Erica breaks down recreating an iconic Marty Supreme Premiere look with custom painted shoes and 3D printed hardware, how she reads a script and gets inside a character before casting, why the actor usually wins the fight over a look, and how costume quietly solves problems for the sound and props departments. Along the way: Eli, the last working chimp in Hollywood, generative AI and body scanning creeping onto LED volume stages, and her love affair with the drag world, where more is more. Then it gets political. Erica sat on the contract committee that fought the AMPTP for pay equity on behalf of costume designers, a traditionally female department that was paid less than half of the art directors, and they won. It is the accomplishment she is proudest of, and it is why she wears her joy on her sleeve, literally.